Utah State Fair

 

Grand Champion knitted lace shawl at Utah State Fair
As a Wanna be lace knitter all I could do was stand in admiration. This piece certainly deserved the prize.

Last Friday night I had an opportunity to demonstrate hand spinning at the Utah State Fair. In between bouts of answering questions and demonstrating drop spindle spinning alongside my sister, who was demonstrating hand spinning on a spinning wheel, I had an opportunity to wander the exhibits.

 

Prize winning Bobbin lace handkerchief in Beds/Maltese technique at the State Fair

As a bobbin lacemaker, teacher and long time judge of the Eastern States Exposition held in New England each September, I always pay close attention to any bobbin lace exhibits or demonstrations I see. As you can see ( if you are a bobbin lacer) these two prize winning exhibits show that the art of bobbin lacemaking is alive and well in Utah. This is not at all surprising, considering the cultural emphasis on traditional crafts and handwork here in Utah.

There were several bobbin lacemakers demonstrating also, but each time I went by they were so busy explaining and demonstrating to interested groups that I didn't interrupt. They all had samples of their work and took a great deal of time slowly walking through the steps of the pieces they were working on so that people could see what really went on behind their dancing hands as they worked.

 

Prize winning Bobbin Lace corner in Bedfordshire Lace technique

As with any state fair there were all sorts of baked goods and canned food. We were sitting quite close to the kitchen area as we spun and so were able to watch the judging of the " family team cooky bake-off." The waiting period was enlivened by the constant commentary of a tv network star from one of the morning news and local events shows who had been given many bags of sugar to give away. She had a seemingly endless supply of trivia questions and was keeping the audience amused by alternately doing pop trivia, recounting funny incidents from the filming of various shows and interviewing members of the different family teams.

One young boy, who had already won two bags of sugar, and who was in the competition with his mother, soon grew bored with the social chit chat and came over to watch the spinners. He finally ended up taking turns with his younger sister in helping me by spinning my spindle for me. His dad seemed quite worried the first time he came by with the baby asleep on his shoulder to see his son grabbing at my spindle, but I reassured him that it was ok. The young man very quickly figured out the timing of the spindle and the spinning and discerned when the thread was long enough that I was going to stop and wind on. Ahh..perhaps a new spinner in the making.

The moment the judges emerged from behind the curtains where they had been tabulating their results, he scampered off to be with his mom. They won third place and a prize of $25.00 for their entry, so the evening was by no means a total loss for him, his family, or for my tired fingers.

 

An exhibit of jams, pickles and quilts

Many of the exhibits had been coordinated around a color scheme so that the cookies were exhibited under several pastel colored quilts which coordinated with the pink and white decorated cake that topped the exhibit. Obvously, in the case of the jams, jeelies and pickles, color coordination hadn't been possible so they settled for colorful contrast and a chocolate cake.

It was an interesting approach to exhibiting but they had a number of fair entries which hadn't fit comfortably into a particular color scheme. The none color coordinated and the "also rans", particularly among the quilts, were hung from the beams at the top of the hall. It may have added to the sound buffering but it also made it more difficult to look at them closely, which I thought was a pity.

At any rate, after three hours of demonstrating, we spinners had a page full of names and addresses of people interested in learning more or in attending the local guild meetings and both my sister and I had a pleasantly full bobbin and spindle to take home with us.